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Sunday, 31 January 2010

Do you suffer from Back ache and stiff shoulders? Do your eyes strain? Do your knees ache? Yes? So, how would you deal with it? Let us analyze the cause and understand the simple but effective preventive measures!

We always feel that the pain occurs only due to some degenerative or chronic condition and immediately rush to the doctor. After few days of medication, again the pain recurs. At times, pain can also recur due to the prolonged and static postures which inhibit blood circulation and take a toll on your body.

Why is there a recurring pain?

Pain in the back, stiffness in the shoulders and knee pain can also occur due to improper postural alignment, sitting stationary for long hours and undue stress at your work place.

What should we do to avoid such pain?

An ergonomic desk set up and proper working posture would help to minimize your recurrent Nagging pain.

Ergonomic Guidelines

- To avoid eye strain, position your Monitor within the comfortable viewing position, i.e. at or below eye level and within your 60 degree viewing field (50 to 75cms from eyes).

- To Position source documents in line with your screen and no more to 35 degree on either side, to avoid excessive bending of your neck and back.

- Place the input devices within the recommended area to avoid strain on your wrists, arms and hands.

- Shoulders and arms are roughly perpendicular to the floor; elbows are held close to the sides

- Thighs should be parallel to the floor and lower legs perpendicular to it. The lower part of the chair should be designed 25 degrees inclined upwards to support the thigh.

- Space under the desk should allow the legs to move and stretch

-“A healthy mind in a healthy body" - this saying is very true for the computer users. While working on the computer, your body is at rest and gets typically no type of exercise. This increases the risk of obesity and many other ailments. So, to eliminate future health risk and recurring pain, ergonomic exercises should also be inculcated along with improved postural habits.

By exercising, the muscle starts working again from their stationary condition. This increases the blood circulation, flexibility of the shortened muscles and even strength of the muscle, making you feel more energized. It also reduces the risk of medical problems like Repetitive stress injury, Cumulative trauma disorder, computer vision syndrome and even deep vein thrombosis. Most recently, studies have reported the increasing dangers of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) among office workers, IT employees and even cab drivers who habitually remain sitting for too long.

Ergonomic Exercise

I would like to share few Simple and Refreshing Exercises to keep you energized all day long. Follow it regularly at your micro breaks or even at your lunch break, before having lunch. Picture below is self explanatory, however more details are given in text below (reference: Paige Waehner - About.com).

(Diagram 2) Lower back stretch - repetitions on each side, holding period for 10 counts

(Diagram 3) Hip flexion - 10 repetitions on each side

(Diagram 4) Knee extension - 10 repetitions on each side

(Diagram 5) Chair squats - 5 repetitions

(Diagram 6) Biceps strengthening - with 1 litre water bottle, for 10 repetitions on each side

(Diagram 7) Triceps strengthening - with 1 litre water bottle, for 10 repetitions on each side

(Diagram 8) Trunk Bending - side to side bending with overhead shoulder flexion and 1 litre water bottle, for 10 repetitions on each side

This exercise workout does not replace the traditional strength training, but definitely keeps your blood moving if you cannot get away from your desk.

If eyes are not rested, and long hours are spent in front of computers, people may have symptoms like headaches, dry eyes, tearing eyes, pain in and around the eyes, inability to maintain focus, changes in color perception etc. So, along with the above exercises, also perform few EYE EXERCISES like moving your eyes off the screen and refocusing them on a distant object for several seconds. Rotating the eyeballs in left and right direction for 10 repetitions, closing the eyelids as tight as you can and opening them wide for few seconds. This exercise will help to prevent the chances of computer vision syndrome, which is very common with the computer workers.

If work pressure prevents you from doing the above exercises, you should perform the four basic ones, at least twice a day, two minutes each:

Take deep breaths slowly through your nose, holding for a couple seconds before exhaling through the mouth.

Keeping your shoulders relaxed, slowly turn your head first to one side, then center, then to the other side, and keep your head held at each position for three seconds before moving it to the next position.

Roll both shoulders slowly for 10 repetitions.

Move your eyes off the screen and refocusing them on a distant object for several seconds. Blink frequently to keep the eye surface lubricated.

So I hope you will make use of the exercise tips and get rid of that nagging pain.

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

When we think of tea, it is always a freshly boiled tea leaves in milk or water, with a scoop full of sugar! It stimulates, it is a time-pass, and it is a way of life for Indians and people world over.

I am an ardent Indian Tea fan, like most of you, and ready for a cuppa any time. I take 4-5 cups of small quantity of tea in a day.

The desire for tea is satiated after few sips. And few sips are also good enough to give you all the beneficial effects you are looking from it. But we tend to gulp the large quantity served in a cup, overdosing ourselves with sugar and milk, and hence once again kicks the digestion cycle for complex milk product. Therefore it is important to drink tea in small quantity.Many of you may be drinking Green Tea, as it is well advertised recently. Green tea is made solely with the leaves of Camellia Sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. Green Tea after meal is a potent solution for most of our day to day problems. It promotes digestion, regulates blood pressure, body temperature and blood sugar, useful for weight loss management and above all eliminates free radicals, which are potent weapons to kill our body cells. Free radicals are produced during digestion process.

Preparation guideline: When preparing green tea, always use filtered cold water and bring it to a rolling boil. Next, allow the water to cool to a temperature somewhere between 80-85 degrees Celsius before you pour it over the tea leaves. (Boiling water usually takes between 30 and 60 seconds to cool to this temperature.) Never use boiling water to prepare your green tea. Water at this temperature will "cook" the leaves and destroy the tea and its flavor, creating a bitter tasting tea. Add a dash of honey, if you so desire.

Friday, 1 January 2010

Clock is ticking for the New Year 2010 to begin. Many of you would already be in a mood to party. This is also a time when new resolutions are made. Many of us have seen these resolutions evaporating in thin air within weeks of its birth many times in the past. It may happen this year too.

Despite of our right intentions and resolve; why we fail to adhere to them?

Let Ameeta Patel (Director & Head Nutrition) help you analyze this. And hopefully you can break the jinx in 2010.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude - Thomas Jefferson

Re-wiring your Mind - Secrets Revealed!

In any process "Technique is only 20% and the other 80% is the Attitude". That means, 20% of success is the result of actual mechanics of achievement. The other 80% comes from your attitude and thought process. The -how to- element (technique) isn't the problem; it is how receptive we are to growth and change (attitude). This determines how far we can go.

'DEEP AND TRUE CHANGES COME FROM THE INSIDE OUT AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND'

By going on a diet or superficially & temporarily altering our habits we are only addressing the symptoms and not the Root of the Matter. Will-power holds the negative actions in check for a while but does not ultimately change the doer. It changes only what you do. The result is a temporary alteration.

Secret:'SHIFT YOUR INNER VIEW POINT AND YOUR WORLD TRANSFORMS'

Einstein had very rightly mentioned 'Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them.' When you focus on problems, you get more of the same.

When you make that deep internal shift from your problem solving mind to your truth knowing mind, the search for answers is over. Now the process of more fully accepting and owning what you are has begun. You stop trying to fix yourself and start being yourself. What you focus on, you create.

RE-WIRING YOUR MIND FROM WITHIN IS WHERE IT ALL BEGINS. The actual psychic surgery happens through Surrender to a willingness to see things in a new way.

Where do these opportunities for change lie?

At a place called 'Edge'. Edge is the point when you are still within your capacities but are challenging yourself to go just a little further. Most of us live in an inner comfort zone putting constraints on ourselves. We have all limiting beliefs (blocks) in our minds that hold us back. They fester in the subconscious and moments of opportunities they whisper you can't, too difficult, not possible etc.

Secret:Push yourself just little further than Edge. Identify the blocks within, work on dissolving them. This is done by adopting a new and different way of looking at things and approaching to solve them.

Doubt your doubts and they vanish;Feel your fears and they fade;Let go your worries and they fail to materialize;Life is all about letting go;It's all about our attitude towards life.

Let's begin the New Year with this new endeavor and a positive attitude towards Healthy Living!

With this happy note Team 2mpower would like to wish its Members and Well Wishers Season's Greetings and a Very Happy New Year 2010